Delhi’s Most Wanted Gangster Arrested After 10 Year Hunt
Delhi’s most wanted gangster Satyawan Sehrawat aka Sonu Dariyapur has been arrested by special cells cops ending a 10-year hunt, after a shootout at north Delhi’s Singhu border early on Thursday.
Sonu was a terror among NCR businessmen for his extortion calls and was wanted for over half-a-dozen killings. He had been hiding in Himachal Pradesh for several years, where he frequently changed his hideouts and never made phone calls. He allegedly masterminded the sensational murders of his rivals this year — gangster Monu Dariyapur was shot dead along with two others at a west Delhi market; another criminal was killed in a Rohtak court.
Operating for years without cops getting any hint of his whereabouts, Sonu carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, the highest bounty for a criminal in Delhi.
Sonu became unusually active this year when he and his allied gang led by Rajesh Rajje allegedly executed a brazen shooting inside the Rohtak court, killing their rival in February. Two months later, Sonu managed to eliminate his friend-turned-foe Monu Dariyapur when his aides fired three dozen bullets in a crowded west Delhi market to kill Monu, a police officer and Monu’s friend.
This not only puts him on the top of the most-wanted list but also had almost every unit in Delhi Police go after him. Patnaik assigned the case to the special cell.
According to DCP (special cell) Sanjeev Yadav, apart from keeping track of him on social media, a number of informers were deployed in several areas of Himachal Pradesh. The teams camped there for months and developed sources to get information.
“On September 13, a source tipped off SI Man Singh about Sonu’s visit to Delhi on Thursday morning.The information came in around midnight after which a10-member crack team led by ACP Akhilesh Yadav was formed,” Yadav added. The teams were equipped with MP5 sub-machine guns, Glock pistols, Bluetooth headsets and bulletproof vests.Two teams led by inspectors Vinay Kumar and Vijay Kumar was asked to cover strategic locations around the border road and all intersections were covered.
Apart from Innovas for blocking the way, cops had bike patrols on that route. The team stationed at Himachal was already en route to Delhi. Around 5 am, a bike patrol spotted Sonu driving an i20 with a Haryana registration.
“The white i20 car was seen turning right from GT Road towards the Narela Industrial Area. When the car was intercepted by a team, the gangster whipped out a pistol and fired two shots at the cops but could not find any way to escape,” said DCP Yadav.
One bullet hit the bulletproof jacket of inspector Vinay while another hit ASI Shiv Mangal. This was when the teams got into the car and overpowered him. Sonu’s sophisticated foreign-made pistol still had 13 cartridges in it -enough to take on the team.From his car, another pistol with four bullets was seized.
Sonu was then quickly whisked away to the special cell’s headquarters where he was put through sustained interrogation. Cops are now conducting raids to arrest his close associates. The entire team has been rewarded by the police chief.